The mid-afternoon slot at a music festival can be a real challenge. Whoever is on stage is in charge of shaking away the crowd's combined hangovers and setting them up for the rest of the night, even if they're not ready to face food just yet. And Super Silly did just that at It Takes A Village. They had the arduous task of waking up festival goers in Cotters Bar, the old man styled pub in the holiday village of Trabolgan, East Cork, earlier on this month and they nailed it.
As relatively new kids on the block, Super Silly are the kind of group that immediately make an impression so theirs is a name you won’t need to ask for twice. As one of those hungover heads in Cotters Bar, they took the most non-responsive of participants and got them shuffling to some chilled out R&B, funk-infused jams. Super Silly… You deserve a medal of honour for that but, unfortunately, all we have if this column. Be our VBF? Please?
Hudis, Grvz, SolBas and Glory all met through their church in Glasnevin and as part of Ireland's incredible emerging urban scene, they've taken their gospel roots and found ways to mesh them perfectly with straight up funk and pop, sultry R&B harmonies and wavey hip-hop. They made their live debut in 2016 and in between firing out singles Not Ready to Leave, Mile High Club and No Pressure last year, they found the time to tear through 2017's festival of circuit like a whirlwind. In fact, they were one of the best acts that Irish Times contributor Peter Crawley caught at Electric Picnic. He fell hard for their "vibrant melding of wincing soul and lubricious RnB". Their appeal is instant.
Pop-rap
At It Takes a Village, they borrowed some Trabolgan camp counsellor blazers from the audience, which started a frenzy in the only way festival sets can, saying that they should change their name to Blazer Squad or Major Blazer. If those pop references go over your head, they’re clever nods to the two-hit wonder band Blazin’ Squad and Diplo’s dancehall and EDM side project Major Lazer.
Making very smooth songs that are locked and loaded for the charts, Super Silly are joining the esteemed ranks of Soulé, Wyvern Lingo, Áine Cahill and Jafaris as some of the fresh-faced purveyors of Irish pop music. Our charts have been begging for artists like this to come along for years and in one fell swoop, we are inundated with class acts and Super Silly's latest single Here couldn't come at a better time, either for Irish music or this form of pop-rap. The type of music that we consume, and the way that we consume it, has changed hugely in the last few years.
This time three years ago, it would be hard to believe that Drake could secure a number one song in Ireland, let alone two. One Dance reached the number one spot in May 2016 and God's Plan held the top spot for nine weeks this year. Hip-hop is the new rock and the new pop all at once and with US acts like Drake and Cardi B doing so well here, it's opened up the doors for young Irish artists. The last year has been monumental for the lads and when Here made it to Spotify's New Music Friday UK playlist, those doors have been completely blown off. If you want to experience this joy, go ahead and treat yourself because Super Silly are playing the Button Factory on May 19th.
